Taking advantage of the commemoration of this May 1st, International Workers' Day, and particularly in its defense, I want to raise the need to
revalue the role of businessmen
in our society.
I have always been convinced of the importance of production and work
as the engine of sustained development
and in this sense, I have expressed on countless occasions the need to
surround the Argentine business community with social prestige
.
As mayor, governor or president, I have always defended national businessmen beyond their size.
They are the true
generators of decent work and wealth
.
On one occasion, during a meeting with trade union and business leaders in Quinta de Olivos, I even told them "you, the productive community, are the ones that should govern the country."
Although it may be a bit of an exaggeration, at that time - as much as it is today - it was necessary
to defend the real economy
, against the advance of financial speculation.
Entrepreneurs are the ones who
are committed
to investing in our land, despite all the difficulties, generating employment and economic activity around them.
They are people who,
instead of investing their money in financial scams,
decide to put it in machines to make things or in a field to produce food, they hire employees and pay salaries.
Large, medium and small companies are important.
SMEs, particularly as the main generators of employment, medium and large companies as drivers of economic activity.
Can anyone really seriously dispute the fact that where a large company sets up there is a lot of activity, both directly and indirectly?
And when I refer to activity, I am not only talking about the economic and commercial, but also the
cultural, the social, the roots
that this generates.
These large companies in many cases subcontract and interact with other smaller companies,
thus multiplying their capacity
to generate employment.
At this point, I also want to highlight the importance, even symbolic, of the
large companies of national origin
that have expanded throughout the world and mainly throughout the region, generating wealth and prestige for our country.
Many of them are a
beacon for our ecosystem of entrepreneurs
who dream of one day becoming
Unicorns
-a name given to companies whose value exceeds one billion dollars- and offer their products and/or services to the world.
That is why
I am outraged when voices are raised against businessmen
, using them as scapegoats, blaming them for all our ills, to thus evade their respective responsibilities.
Of course, like any activity carried out by man,
there are good ones, regular ones, and there are bad ones
.
But we cannot continue to allow its importance to be underestimated.
Nor can we allow people to continue to be confused, holding them responsible, among other things, for the rise in prices.
From the Argentine Productive Movement we have been alerting about inflation and its impact on people's lives for years, mainly on the most needy sectors of our society.
We have also made progress on proposals to lower food costs and warned about
the weight of taxes that stifle
and limit the development of our companies.
It is bad that many do not mind
the real price maker is the State
.
In any product, however small it may be, 60% of its value is made up of national, provincial and municipal taxes.
What's more, this burden acts in many cases as an
insurmountable barrier
for small and medium-sized companies that want to grow.
Since they are forced to work on the edge of informality to sustain their productive activity, but at the same time this limits their possibility of access to credit and quality financing.
In this sense, the State -with its tax burden- generates more informality instead of promoting real inclusion.
Eduardo Duhalde, in a UIA talk, together with Rodolfo Terragno in 2009. Photo Alfredo Martínez
We have to
stop stigmatizing
the national business community, and instead we have to promote the growth and emergence of new businessmen.
The State, instead of being just a partner in profits, must focus on providing the necessary conditions to develop our full productive potential.
Only then
can we get ahead
: with a development model.
*The author is former president of the Nation and president of the Argentine Productive Movement.
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